Ironically, it is the Orthodox Serbs who are responsible for the revival/renaissance of Slavic Muslim/Ottoman culture and the Islamic faith in Bosnia-Herzogovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Thracian Greece, etc.

If Archbishop John Ireland is the "father of American Orthodoxy," then Milosovic can very well be labeled the "father of the Slavic Muslim revival/renaissance in the Balkans and America."

Logged

"It follows, therefore, that imagination is a power of the soul such that, by its very nature, it has no capacity for entering the realm of union with God."--Unseen Warfare.

Actually, the Bosnians saw the Turks as liberators, since the majority of Bosnians were Bogomils and were living under the threat of extermination by the Pope and the Hungarian monarch.

Also, after the defeat of the Serbian armies by the Turks, many of the Serbian and other Slavic nobles, converted to Islam and this fact had a strong influence upon those of the lower classes of Bosnian-Serbian society.

The Muslims also had another advantage: the Muslim missionaries sent to the Balkans were often former Christians from Byzantium and were much better educated and more culturally refined than the Christian clergy of the Balkans.

There has been a strong revival of Islamic culture in the Balkans, with many Slavic Muslims now studying in Turkey and other Islamic countries. Of course, the Turks are assisting the Bosnians in many ways, including the training of a new officer corps for the Bosnian army.

The Serbian bombing of Sarajevo and the loss of 250,000 souls during the Bosnian-Serb war had more to do with the Islamic revival in the Balkans than Clinton's war against the hapless Serbs.

And poor Serbia's problems never cease to end....especially among the thuggish 'leadership,' excuse the expression.

Logged

"It follows, therefore, that imagination is a power of the soul such that, by its very nature, it has no capacity for entering the realm of union with God."--Unseen Warfare.

You're welcome. Basically the Bosnians welcomed the Turks and, having no love for the Catholics (Croats) or the Orthodox (Serbs, Montenegrins and Bulgarians), with whom they apparently fought, they became Muslims with a vengeance, happily adopting the conqueror's religion against their old enemies. Also, Bogomilism and Islam resembled each other enough that it seemed a good fit/easy change.

AFAIK the Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats and Bosnians are really the same ethnicity and speak the same language. It's just that the Orthodox people use the Cyrillic alphabet (slightly different to the Russian version), the others use the Latin alphabet (this one) with accent marks, and as P.J. O'Rourke put it, the Serbs and Montenegrins don't go to Divine Liturgy, the Croats don't go to Mass and I guess the Bosnians don't go to mosque Friday nights.